There is a lot of affinity among Estonia and Georgia, two tiny nations for centuries caught between the Russian rock and the German or Ottoman/Persian hard place. Common fate may be, indeed, the reason for Georgia’s topping the list of Estonian development cooperation priorities. Georgia is the largest recipient of Estonia’s bilateral aid, most of which is about sharing the Estonian experience of establishing itself as a new European democracy and a unique place to do business.
If you visit any post-Soviet country after spending some time in the West, one thing strikes you immediately: the average age of visible poverty. Not only are you more likely to see old people begging on the streets, but old people are also dressed more poorly, and tend to buy the cheapest things on the market.
ISET is happy to announce that David Shavgulidze from Class of 2013 has been recently promoted as the head of the newly established IT Audit Unit at the State Audit Office of Georgia (SAOG); David’s professional growth at the SAOG is rather impressive – he started as an intern and got promoted twice in a two-year period.
The project supports the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia to identify priority sectors/subsectors of the economy to target foreign investment. The sectors prioritized have potential for an increase in productivity and export to the EU market and therefore are potentially attractive to foreign investors.
On 1-2 February, Yaroslava Babych, head of Macroeconomic Policy Research Center participated in an international forum – “The Prospects of Georgia’s Democratic and Economic Development” organized by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), in partnership with the University of Bremen and with the financial support of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.